The present invention relates to the testing of electronic components and, in particular, to the testing of components in DC, RF and pulsed regimes.
In some necessary measurements, a device may not be able to withstand continuous application of the DC and/or RF signals employed. In other cases, at minimum, the continuous application of the signals may produce heating of the device under test (DUT), resulting in measurement errors. To overcome this limitation, it is known to pulse the signals so that the average power applied is within tolerable limits.
In the typical prior art approach to making RF and DC measurements on the same nodes of the DUT, switches are included in the test path to switch the RF and DC test instruments in and out of the circuit as appropriate. In high precision measurements, this results in errors and/or calibration difficulties. This is further compounded in the case of pulsed measurements.
High precision DC test signals are typically applied/measured with source measure units (SMUs). An SMU can very accurately source a current or voltage and measure the result.